Simplify Your Spiritual Life

Does your spiritual life sometimes seem more like a burden than a blessing?
Does your spirituality seem to exhaust you as often as it refreshes you? Have
your spiritual practices become "just another thing to do" in an already
overcrowded, stress-filled schedule? If so, then you need to simplify your spiritual
life.

We should expect part of true spirituality to exhaust us, for it exists not
merely for our own edification, but to serve the glory and purposes of God.
Jesus' spiritual labors occasionally so fatigued Him that He could remain asleep
in an open boat in the middle of a lake during a life-threatening storm (see
Luke 8:22-25). Likewise, the apostle Paul knew the depletion of inner resources
that results from the willingness to "spend and be spent" for the
sake of the souls of others (2 Corinthians 12:15). All aspects of externalized
spirituality - serving people's needs, doing good works, taking the gospel to
the spiritually lost, working in church ministries - expend the reserves of
both body and soul.

There's a problem, though, when the inflow of spiritual renewal doesn't replenish
the outflow of spiritual ministry. Our spiritual life should be the source of
inner recreation and restoration because it is the way we most directly experience
the Lord Himself in daily life. Through our spiritual disciplines (rightly motivated
and practiced) come many of the most refreshing blessings of knowing Christ.

An example of how the spiritual disciplines can be an ongoing means of reinvigorating
the soul is depicted in Psalm 1:2-3. Frequent meditation on (and not just reading
of) God's Word so continually refreshes the mediator that "he shall be
like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its
season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper."

However, as everything else in our lives becomes more complex, so can our
spirituality. As one writer observed, "The pattern of over-involvement,
clutter and busyness that is a part of our lives at home and at work will follow
us into our spiritual lives unless we are vigilant." With increasing prosperity
and technology come increasing opportunities and options - even in our spiritual
practices - that weren't available a short time ago. For instance, instead of
simply sitting in a comfortable chair by a sunny window with our Bible, journal,
and pen, now we can

receive devotional readings sent daily by automatic email.

read the Bible in several of the many translations we possess, including
those on our computer.

make journal entries on the computer by keyboard or voice-recognition
software, inserting interesting graphics along with the text.

But it all needs to be done faster than ever before because of the strangling
demands on our time.

The growing frustrations of hurry and complexity affect the practice not
only of our personal spiritual disciplines, but also of our congregational spiritual
disciplines (the ones we practice with other Christians). There's less time
for church involvement than previously, and yet there are more church activities
to choose from. We're so far behind in so many things that sometimes we wonder
if what we receive from church is worth the overwhelming effort just to get
there.

In some ways we're doing more than ever spiritually, but enjoying and profiting
from it less. Many areas of our lives are productive and prosperous, yet we've
never felt so spiritually withered. Our calendars are full, but our souls are
empty.

The time has come to evaluate whether what we are doing in our spiritual
lives is taking us where we want to go. There is hope. Read on.

Know the Good News of Christian Spirituality

Not only have most people on the planet never heard the good news of Christian
spirituality, I am doubtful whether many churchgoers have even heard it clearly
presented. And some who have heard it thousands of times are tentative when
asked about it.

Christian spirituality begins with one of the most important words in the
Bible. That word is gospel, which is the English translation of the New Testament
Greek word that literally means "good news". But as essential as the
gospel is to Christianity, I have often encountered an embarrassing silence
whenever I have asked church groups, "What is the gospel?"

Let me ask you. Suppose you were going to write the gospel in a paragraph
or so and send it to a friend in an email or letter. Could you do it? Confidently?
Why would it be "good news?"

One of the places where the Bible summarizes the gospel is in 1 Corinthians
15:1-8. The heart of this passage tells us that "Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again
the third day according to the Scriptures" (verses 3-4). So the gospel
that produces genuine Christian spirituality is that Jesus Christ died, taking
the guilt of sinners and the wrath of God upon Himself, and was raised bodily
from the dead to show that the Father accepted His death for others and removed
their sins. Christ's substitutionary death for sinners is the measure of His
love, and His resurrection from the dead is the stunning confirmation that all
He said and did is true.

This is good news - the best possible news - because it demonstrates, among
so many other things, the willingness of the God we had sinned against countless
times to draw us to Himself, to engage in an intimate relationship with us.
It means that He has done in Christ what we couldn't have done for ourselves,
opening the door for us to come in faith and to experience all the indescribable
riches of fellowship with God, and thereby become "partakers of the divine
nature" (2 Peter 1:4).